This jacket by Seoul design studio Shinseungback Kimyonghun is covered with camera lenses that can record assailants and broadcast the images on the internet (+ movie).
Shinseungback Kimyonghun placed the different-sized lenses all over the tailored Aposematic Jacket to serve as a warning to potential attackers that their actions might be recorded.
"Aposematic Jacket is a wearable computer for self-defence," said studio co-founder Yong Hun Kim. "The lenses on the jacket give off the warning signal, 'I can record you', to prevent possible attack."
The wearer pushes a hidden button to record images of their environment, which are automatically published on a designated web page via a wireless network.
"Cameras make people act 'properly'," said Kim. "It's because once someone's behaviour is recorded, it will exist beyond time and space so that it can be 'judged' by others anytime and anywhere."
Although the lenses are positioned all over the garment, only four are actually hooked up to camera modules. Located on each of the four sides, the cameras create a 360-degree panoramic snapshot of the surroundings.
Instead of surveillance, which implies a group watching an individual, the designers describe the concept as souveillance – where an individual is watching others.
"The jacket is a kind of sousveillance camera that protects its wearer like surveillance cameras are used to protect goods in shops," said Kim.
The Aposematic Jacket is named after the colouration displayed by organisms to alert predators that eating them will bring consequences. For example, poisonous frogs often have brightly coloured skin.
"The camera lenses on the jacket broadcast the possibility of being recorded to repel attackers," said Kim. "The ones who ignore the warning will taste toxicity of the recorded images."
The project is a response to the increasing amount of cameras in our lives, including CCTV around buildings and public spaces, Google Street View's incessant capturing of the environment and drones that can photograph scenes from the skies.
"How will people act when everything is recorded all the time? How is the ethics of humanity going to be in the age of ubiquitous veillance?" asked the designers. "Having these questions in mind, we wanted to spark discussions about this new environment."